Advance Notice (Invitation) Email

6|18 Case Study Interviews: Advance Notice Email

Thank you for the ongoing conversation on capturing lessons learned (and/or outcomes) associated with the 6|18 Initiative.  To showcase your leadership in the field, CDC and our partner, George Washington University (GWU), would like to assist you in documenting the processes and impact of your 6|18 Initiative-related activities as steps towards health and cost improvement.

Interview logistics and timeline:

We propose holding key informant phone [or in-person] interviews, approximately one hour each, with public health team members and Medicaid team members, to learn more about state successes, lessons learned, and challenges overcome while doing 6|18-related work. We also estimate that you may spend up to 15 minutes preparing for the interview. The number of interviews may vary with the number of conditions. For example, we propose 4 interviews for states with 1 condition, and 5 interviews for states with 2 conditions, with the following stakeholders:

State Team Stakeholder	Number Interviewed
Public Health Director	1
Public Health Manager	1 per condition
Medicaid Director	1
Medicaid Manager	1

GWU and/or CDC will contact you to schedule phone [or in-person] interviews at your convenience, preferably within the next [SPECIFY TIMEFRAME, E.G., 3 MONTHS]. For your reference, we will share interview questions in advance.

Qualitative factors of interest:

Please know that we are not here to evaluate you or your program, but rather to better understand how public health and Medicaid currently work together on their 6|18 Initiative activities, and how the collaborative efforts informed changes to Medicaid payment policy and increased utilization of evidence-based preventive services. More specifically, we will ask questions about:

1. The facilitators and barriers to implementation of the 6|18 Initiative interventions selected by the participating state.

2. How collaborative activities between the health care and public health sectors informed changes to Medicaid payment policy and increased utilization of evidence-based preventive services.

3. How participation in CDC’s 6|18 Initiative informed changes to (or accelerated progress towards) Medicaid payment policy and increased utilization of evidence-based preventive services.

4. How state-level factors (e.g., organizational state-level infrastructure, federal investments in improving the delivery of state-level health care) facilitated, or posed barriers to, implementing changes to Medicaid payment policy and increasing utilization of evidence-based preventive services.

Intended use:

The information obtained from interviews will broaden CDC’s understanding of how public health & Medicaid programs work together. With your permission, we will share lessons learned with the field to help other states accelerate activities related to the 6|18 Initiative, and use lessons learned to improve the 6|18 Initiative. Your responses will be reported in aggregate in an overall cross site analysis summary, which will examine the data collected across all case study sites. In addition to informing the cross-site report, your responses may also be reported in a “State Profile Case Study” that is specific to your state. Findings for each program will be presented such that specific data, including quotes, will not be linked to or attributed to a particular individual. The Case Study will provide an overview of the 6|18 accomplishments achieved by the public health & Medicaid program in your state, and highlight any unique factors that promoted the cross-collaboration that resulted in these accomplishments. You will be given an opportunity to review products before they are shared publicly.

Participation is voluntary:

There are no right or wrong answers and you can refuse to answer any questions you do not want to answer. Your participation in this study is voluntary, and you may stop at any time. There will be no negative consequences if you choose to stop or if you choose not to participate at all. Your organization’s experiences can inform best practices that will benefit other states who are pursuing related activities. There are no risks to participants. All interview data will be treated in a secure manner and will not be disclosed, unless otherwise compelled by law.

Permission requested to record interviews:

At the beginning of the interview, we will ask for your permission to audio record our discussion so that we can ensure our notes are accurate. The recordings will be deleted on or before [May 2021], three years after data collection begins.

Questions:

If you have any questions about your rights as a study participant, please contact Naomi Chen-Bowers at JTV4@cdc.gov or 1-770-488-6036, or Erin Brantley at ebrantley@gwu.edu or 1-202-994-8606.